General Information: Images:
One of the great things about the current success of Transformers is that it allows the creators a bit of flexibility to design toys that may not normally have been produced or even conceived of. One benefit of this has clearly been the huge number design homages in the line. But another benefit is the creation of somewhat unconventional characters. Tow-Line is one Energon toy that manages to accomplish both of these things in one toy.
Vehicle Mode: Perhaps the most significant details molded into the sides are ladders that lead up to the roof of the van. These are often found on news vans to allow a technician to get to the roof, and thus the transmission equipment.
And of course, no self respecting news van Transformer would be caught without such equipment! On the top of the van is Tow-Line's weapon/equipment. This piece has two radar/satellite dishes on it, one round, one rectangular. This also doubles as his weapon in other modes, so its various pegs can attach to any standard Armada/Energon figure's fist holes. Also on this piece is a Powerlinx peg that you can connect other Energon weapons or Mini-Cons to. The radar dishes are neat. You can turn them from side to side, even have the rear one point up a bit if you wanted. Quite a different imaginary play setting When we get to talking about the color scheme of this toy, we begin to enter homage territory. While at first, one automatically thinks "Ironhide/Ratchet" when a van is mentioned as a homage, this mode actually shows otherwise (though their homages come in the robot mode). The front of the vehicle is mostly white, with the windows being translucent red plastic. The front bumper is blue, which extends out to the sides of the vehicle all the way to the back. The top is light blue with gold details. The sides are where we find a deco homage. The sides are molded in blue plastic. Painted on the side in a line that then angles up is a red line with a silver outline. This is a direct visual reference to the classic G1 Transformer Skids, who himself was a blue vehicle with similar styling. In terms of play value, you can do more than just have Tow-Line report stories. Should he need to defend himself, you can add on Energon weapons to the rig on top as well as attaching them to the holes on either side of the van towards the rear. This addition to the play pattern is critical for setting Energon toys apart from other lines (and indeed, some other Transformers) and it's good to see that has not been abandoned here. Transformation to Robot Mode:
Robot Mode: One design detail which really differs from the old Ironhide/Ratchet design is the head. Here, it seems the designers continued using Skids as a starting point and made a head with details reminscent of him instead of Ironhide and Ratchet. The central crest has an inset section, leading to a helmet that goes to the sides in an upturned fashion while small shapes can be found on the sides of the head. Though not an exact match to Skids, there is a definite influence.
Tow-Line has eleven points of articulation in this mode. The important thing here is that most of this articulation can be found in important spots. For instance, in the arms he has three points each, and thankfully his head can turn despite being on a base. The new colors introduced into the mix are green and beige, which look kind of odd against the white, red and blues on the rest of the toy. I think black and silvers might have worked better here, but overall, it's not a horribly ugly color scheme, just a strange one. The transport formed form the bottom half of the vehicle mode is a homage in design to a similar vehicle included with the original Ironhide. This time around, it's much bigger with more detail sculpted into the toy itself. Take a look and you'll find all sorts of tech detail on this vehicle from tubes, to wiring to three guns on either side. Attach Tow-Line's weapon on for more firepower! Not enough, on either side of the transport are two holes for attaching Energon weapons. The central portion of the transport has three holes itself, so if you don't want to use Tow-Line's weapon, you can attach different weapons of your own. The vehicle roles on the two wheels and smaller wheels on the treads. And yes, if you want to emulate the G1 Ironhide toy, you can have Tow-Line stand on this transport or do more, which brings us to the next part of this review: Powerlinking! Transformation to Upper Body Mode:
Powerlinx Tow-Line: As the top of other robots, Tow-Line is nice. He's not too chunky since a good portion of his body mass is split up between the robot and transport, and he has good posability in the upper body area, allowing for a very clean looking Powerlink with virtually any Autobot. I'm also a big fan of the "legs used as guns" thing that began with Inferno, so I'm glad to see it repeated here.
Final Thoughts:
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